Kansas City Royals’ losing slide reaches five after they’re swept by Texas Rangers
The Kansas City Royals’ first trip to the new ballpark in Arlington, Texas won’t be remembered fondly.
The Royals offense sputtered again Sunday as they lost 4-1 to the Texas Rangers in front of an announced 29,046 at Globe Life Field. The Royals scored just one run in the final two games of the three-game sweep by the Rangers.
The Royals (33-43) now have their fourth losing streak of five games or more this season. The only other clubs with four such streaks are the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Whit Merrifield went 3 for 4 with an RBI, while Nicky Lopez (2 for 3) and Ryan O’Hearn (2 for 4) had two apiece.
“We’ve just got to try to stay even-keeled through the ups and the downs,” Merrifield said. “We seem to get really down when things don’t go well and really high when things are going well. It’s good when it’s going good and we can ride that as long as we can, but when things are going bad it’s hard to be really hard on yourself everyday in this game when things aren’t going well.
“So I think if we just try to be a little more even-keeled, maybe things will be a little less streaky. I don’t know. I don’t know the answer. That’s just a thought.”
Merrifield helped set up great scoring opportunities in the third and fifth innings. In the third after a Lopez single, Merrifield singled to give the Royals runners on first and second with no outs and the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 hitters in the lineup due up.
In the third, Carlos Santana flew out, Salvador Perez grounded out and O’Hearn popped out.
The Royals scored a run in the fifth thanks to three consecutive singles to start the inning. After Kelvin Gutierrez’s infield single, Lopez singled to right to put runners on the corners. Then Merrifield ripped a single up the middle to drive in Gutierrez and make the score 3-1.
However, Santana, Perez and O’Hearn went down in order on three consecutive fly balls — two on first pitch swings — to strand two men on base. The Royals stranded six runners in the first five innings.
“I try to get on base for our big bats coming up, sometimes it’s going to work out and sometimes it’s not,” Merrifield said. “Today it didn’t work out, but I’ve still got confidence in them moving forward. I’ll try to get on base for them again tomorrow and hope for a better result tomorrow.”
The Royals also had two men on with one out in the eighth after a Santana walk and an O’Hearn single, but Jorge Soler hit into an inning-ending double play.
Asked about the recent offensive struggles potentially leading to hitters trying to take too much on themselves individually, Royals manager Mike Matheny responded, “Human nature. It’s always going to be there, but I think it compounds over time when certain guys take a lot of pride in being the guy to get something done, get something big done.
“Especially if they know the rest of the offense is still trying to get firing. They feel like they’ve got to do it all. They’re going up there with the right approach, but I think they do just fall victim like everybody else just feeling like they’ve got to carry maybe more weight than what they actually do.”
The Royals were playing from behind from the first inning on. The Rangers (30-48) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first. All three runs allowed by Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer (3-6) came in that inning.
Singer inflicted damage himself when he committed a throwing error on a bouncer back to the mound by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Singer made an athletic play to snag the ball, but his throw to first base went in the dirt and Ryan O’Hearn couldn’t scoop it.
Adolis Garcia’s one-out RBI triple drove in Kiner-Falefa. The next batter, Joey Gallo, smashed a two-run home run — his third in two games.
“He was pounding the strike zone,” Matheny said. “Unfortunately, the 0-2 pitches got him. It’s amazing how the first inning — that can set the tone for the game. But he continued, I thought, to make really good pitches. The slider came along real well. He pitched himself out of some trouble in the fifth, but I thought the stuff looked right. He felt good, which is always the best news.”
The pitch hit back to Singer when he committed the error, the pitch Garcia hit for a triple and the one Gallo hit for a homer each came on 0-2 counts.
Singer allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits and three walks in five innings. He also struck out five.
“A fastball there that was supposed to be a way, and I think it leaked towards the middle a little bit,” Singer said of the pitch to Garcia. “Obviously, the pitch to Gallo. I don’t really know where that was, but I know it hung up a little bit and didn’t have the bite that I wanted. ”
After the Royals scored their lone run in the fifth inning, the Rangers added an unearned run against reliever Jake Brentz in the sixth inning without a hit. Brentz hit the second batter of the inning, Eli White, on the foot with a pitch. Then a walk put two men on, a grounder to first allowed both runners to advance while the Royals got the second out of the inning.
Gutierrez’s error on a chopper by Kiner-Falefa allowed White to score as the Rangers lead increased to 4-1.
Former Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his 13th save of the season for the Rangers.
This story was originally published June 27, 2021 at 4:39 PM.
